[4] It was determined to be segregated by habitat from the dusky hopping mouse (Notomys fuscus) and identifiable by lacking throat pouches.

[4] The fawn hopping mouse is a medium sized rodent weighing between 30 and 50 g (1.1 and 1.8 oz) with a head and body length between 10 and 12 cm (3.7 to 4.7 in).

[5][2][6] The underside is white with the tail following a similar colour pattern to the rest of the body except the dark brush at the tip.

[6][8] The presence of a naked area of glandular skin on the chest between the forelimbs of males (and some females) can also be used to distinguish between species.

[6][8] The current endemic range of the fawn hopping mouse is largely reduced to the Channel Country Bioregion north-east South Australia and south-west Queensland.

[9][10] The historical range included  most of the Lake Eyre Basin, southern Northern Territory, and the eastern edge of the Nullarbor Plain as well as western New South Wales.

[2][6][7][11] Targeted surveys conducted in 2008 and 2009 in the south-eastern Northern Territory failed to locate the species leading to it being declared extinct.

[3] The preferred habitat of the fawn hopping mouse is open gibber and clay plains in arid environments.

[2] The fawn hopping mouse constructs burrows in sand patches, or in gibber or claypans when soil is softened after rain.

[2][3][5] Hyperpredation by cats has been linked to the reduction of rodent populations of similar size to fawn hopping mice in low productivity landscapes.

[3] However, the presence of cats in the favoured environment is rare reducing the effect on the population allowing the species to have survived.

[3] Habitat changes from land degradation and overgrazing by feral livestock and invasion of weeds have also had an effect on the population of this species.

[2][3][5] Domestic and feral ungulates can cause degradation of vegetated patches of sand by excessive trampling leading to destabilisation and increased erosion.

[3] The higher stocking rates of livestock prior to 1950 may have been an influence on the historical decline of the range and population of this species.

[6] The fawn hopping mouse is currently presumed extinct in the Northern Territory and the most recent confirmed record of the species was in 1895.